At the beginning of the month, I promised to share wisdom that I gleaned from the fabulous Judy Blume during the SCBWI Summer Spectacular virtual conference. The theme that threaded throughout most of the speakers‘ advice was that to create a career as an author, you must have determination and perserverence.
Here is how Ms. Blume put it (paraphrasing from my notes):
Submit your work and immediately sit down and start the next one. Build a body of work.
Well, if I follow anyone’s advice, it’s hers. Book 2 of Birthday Ranch is about 4,000 words in AND I outlined it first. Time will tell if that will make a difference. But, the upside of starting a new project right away is that I’m not obsessively checking my inbox for feedback any time I get a free moment.
No matter what you are passionate about doing, when you finish a project, start another one. It can be as simple as jotting down some notes. You can do it!